Communities and Forums

Communities and Forums

Community of Practice for Large Enrolment Courses - No longer offered

Thank you to everyone who attended a Large Enrolment Course community of practice meetings. While we will no longer be meeting in this capacity, we invite you to attend the upcoming Conversations about Large Enrolment webinar series. Please watch this website for details as they develop. 


More information

For more information about the upcoming Conversations about Large Enrolment webinar series, please contact Lorelei Anselmo or Sreyasi Biswas for details.

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Learning Technology Forum

The Learning Technology Forum is a space to share different ways we use learning technology as a part of our teaching and learning in the University of Calgary community and to connect with other members of the community. Learning technology is a broad category, but the focus of the forum is on the tools instructors use to engage learners and evaluate learning. 


Format

The Learning Technology Forum is a 45-minute session for discussing learning technology; what works, what doesn’t work, what we’ve learned, and what we want to know.

In the forum, participants will have the opportunity to:

  • Share examples of their uses of learning technology
  • Discuss broader learning technology applications
  • Apply learning technologies to different contexts and disciplines 

Date: First Monday of every month.

Time: 12 p.m.

Invitation to join

The Learning Technology Forum is open to everyone in the University of Calgary community who teaches (online or in-person), and works with or has an interest in learning technologies.

If you are interested, please contact Tyson Kendon to be added to the Learning Technology Forum mailing list.

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Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) in Teaching and Learning Community of Practice

This community of practice is a collaborative and collective learning space to connect, capture, and share our learning, thoughts, and experiences with EDIA in teaching and learning practices. In this participant-driven space, we aim to explore our understanding of the diverse human experience in post-secondary contexts.


Format

In this community of practice, participants will have the opportunity to:

  • Share practices, processes, and journeys for engaging in this work in a good way
  • Seek clarity and understanding around the issues related to EDIA in post-secondary teaching and learning
  • Critically engage in EDIA-related topics of interest to the group and reflect on our lived experiences to cultivate diversity and depth of thought 
  • Connect and cultivate ongoing interdisciplinary relationships to help build capacity for EDIA in teaching and learning across campus

Date: From September to May (except December and April), meetings take place on the last Wednesday of every month from 3 – 3:50 p.m.

Modality: Online via Zoom

Invitation to join

This community of practice is open to educators including course instructors, educational leaders, staff supporting teaching, teaching assistants and postdoctoral scholars in the UCalgary community who have an interest in exploring EDIA practices in their teaching and learning.

If you are interested in joining, please contact Dr. Fouzia Usman, Educational Development Consultant (EDI).

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Open Educational Practices Community of Practice

The TI and Libraries & Cultural Resources have collaborated on the development of a new online community of practice (OCoP) for open educational practices at UCalgary. This online community of practice is a space for educators, staff and students to share open educational practices, pedagogies and resources.


Format

In this community of practice, participants will have the opportunity to:

  • Share open educational practices, resources and approaches
  • Connect with peers and colleagues interested in expanding open educational practices
  • Contribute to the development of open-access repositories, blogs, and other channels for sharing open educational practices across and beyond UCalgary

Meeting notes are shared in a Teams channel and a D2L course shell that all participants have access to. As the OCoP grows, the group will develop open-access channels for distributing these notes.

Date: Once per term, next meeting TBD

Invitation to join

This community of practice is open to educators, staff, students, and partners who share an interest in open educational practices, including open educational resources (OER).

If you are interested in joining, please contact Sarah Adams (oer@ucalgary.ca).

Teaching with XR Community of Practice

Extended Reality (XR) is an umbrella term referring to virtual, augmented and mixed reality as well as other immersive environments. This community of practice is a space where instructors using extended reality in their teaching can come together to connect, share experiences, good practices and resources, and to help to foster innovative teaching practices across UCalgary.

Any instructor who teaches (or is interested in teaching) with any form of computer-aided tool, from phone-based Augmented Reality to full Virtual Reality setups, is encouraged to join the community, as is any member of the campus community who helps support these types of efforts. 


Format

The XR CoP sessions are held online. The Zoom links for each session will be sent to the participants closer to the date of the session. Please see below the session schedule for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Dates:

  • May 2, 2024 from 10 a.m. | Speakers and topic to be announced. 

Invitation to join

If you are interested in joining the Teaching with XR Community of Practice, please contact Tyson Kendon and Anna Pletnyova.

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Network Community of Practice

This community of practice is a space to hold work-integrated learning conversations across campus, a space to share best practices, collaborate, build reciprocal relationships and to create some shared mutually beneficial resources.


Format

In this community of practice, participants will have the opportunity to:

  • Share best practice in WIL
  • Collaborate with practitioners across faculties
  • Participate in meaningful discussions

Dates

•    Thursday, April 10, 9:30am - 11:00 a.m.
•    Thursday, Sept. 18, 9:30-11:00 a.m.
•    Thursday, Dec. 11, 9:30-11:00 a.m.

Invitation to join

This community of practice is open to all faculty and staff involved in Work-Integrated Learning at UCalgary.

If you are interested in joining, please contact Mika Blundell for an invitation to the next meeting and access to our Team channel.

Blue background with computer screen depicting a group interacting over a video conference platform.

Designing an Online Community of Practice

To design a thoughtful and mutually beneficial online community of practice (OCoP), we developed a seven-stage framework. While it may be useful for readers to approach these stages like sequential steps, the framework is well-suited to an iterative approach that accommodates rapidly changing conditions and needs. At each stage of the framework, we suggest asking the following reflective questions to prompt intentional design of your OCoP.

Learn more